Guerrilla war will decide the new political order in the world

by Saybhan Samat

(November 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The western mass-media has trivialized and down played the Muslim achievements in the battle field in the recent past. Within a period of less than 30 years, Muslims have consigned a super-power, the Soviet Union to the dustbin of history and are about to deliver the other super power the US not withstanding Barack Obama who wants to send more troop to Afghanistan to the same fate, together with their regional surrogate, Israel.

The achievements against the US so far are particularly remarkable because the mujahideen have little or no external help. Defeat of the Red army in Afghanistan in 1989 should have led to a “peace dividend” for Muslims but it did not. Instead their sacrifices freed the captive peoples of Eastern Europe and led to the emergence of the US as the sole “super-power.” Far from being grateful to the Muslims, US elites immediately set out to crush the emerging power of Islam. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were the direct result of this mind-set. Thanks to the valiant resistance of the Muslims and monumental stupidity of the neo-con administration of the US, the US itself is on the verge of a massive military defeat coupled with a stupendous economic melt-down sinking to the quagmire of a serious recession.

The Europeans and the American who were earlier Europeans have historically plundered the resources of other people by colonizing their lands. When the age of colonization concluded in 1945, with the formation of the UN, the victors of the world war II used neocolonialism via the U.N. forming agencies like the International Monetary Fund. World-Bank and the World Trade Organization. The spoils of colonialism and neo-colonialism were used to build their own societies. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq executed under the slogan “war-on-terror.” have also been aimed at plundering the resources of these regions. Afghanistan is a conduit for access to the resources of Central Asia, while control of Iraqi’s oil has been the main reason for US aggression there. Neither appears achievable now. There is hardly any talk now of spreading democracy there.

How is that relatively ill-armed groups of Muslims with no proper command structure are able to resist and even defeat sophisticated well-armed conventional size super-power forces. Modern day freedom fighters are now identified as part of the fourth generation warfare and also a vindication of the evolutionary nature of war.

Third generation warfare heavily focused on maneuver, combined air, sea and land operations and were fought on two main domains: mainly on the battle –front and on the information front. Freedom-fighters have on the other hand taken the war beyond the confines of the battle-fronts, operating on multiple fronts including information, political, social and cultural domains. The dilemma of the modern day militaries is that their armouries and strategies are better suited to fight third generation war fare, which was waged between nations. Another very significant feature of the fourth generation. War is the total willingness of the fourth generation fighters to sacrifice their lives for the cause for which they stand.

Numerically on inferior force of the fourth generation could defeat a much superior military force of a previous generation through the successful application of all available resources in multiple domains. Indeed both the US and the Soviet Union lost two wars, the former to the Vietcong and the latter to the Afghan Muhajideen, which deployed the strategies of fourth generation warfare.

The fourth generation warfare is termed guerrilla, linked more to the name of the romantic hero Che Guevara. Man is ingenious and necessity is the mother of invention. It has been now proved beyond doubt that the urban and jungle guerrilla operations bring victories against the best equipped armies of the world.

Presently Muslims are in the fore-front of the struggle against neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism. There are other developments as well that have hastened the US’s decline. Islamic Iran’s steadfastness and it’s refusal to be bullied by US threats have emboldened other countries, especially in South America to challenge the US’s hegemony. The Hisbullah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine have similarly achieved results that have boosted the confidence of oppressed peoples every where. Hisbulla’s victory over the Zionists war machine, not once but twice-first by driving it out of much of southern Lebanon in May 2000 and them defeating it in July-August 2006 war-has radically transformed the regional landscape. Israel which has now been accused of being a apartheid state no less than by former president Jimmy Carter and Desomond Tutu is gripped by a crisis of identity: many heads have rolled since the July-August 2006 debacle which Hisbullah inflicted. Last July’s prisoner exchange between Israel and Hisbullah drove another nail into the Zionist coffin.

However since the fourth generation warfare will ultimately decide the new political order in the world, in this type of warfare very little consideration is given to the loss of civilian life. In Iraq and Afghanistan sectarian differences have caused the death of thousands of Muslims. The Wahabi, and Salafie sects have openly killed Muslims who do not subscribe to their beliefs naming them infidels. This has delayed Muslim victory in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps another fourth generation war between the Wahabis and the Shia in Iraq will decide who should rule Iraq. - Sri Lanka Guardian